A farmer by profession, Samuel D. Carothers (b. ca. 1835) moved in 1856 with his wife and children from Austin, Travis County, to Williamson County. He became postmaster of the Ponton post office in 1860, when he requested that a post office be established near his home, so that he would not have to travel to Baghdad for his mail.

The Samuel D. Carothers Family Papers, 1853-1870, contain the correspondence and estate papers of the Carothers family. Samuel D. Carothers penned the majority of the correspondence to his brother John, in which he discusses farming, the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 1860, and the potential presidential candidacy of Sam Houston. Furthermore, he relates conflicts with the Comanche tribe in the region, including the murder of several families and the abduction of women and girls. The estate papers pertain to the sale of land in San Saba County, Texas.

Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s "History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light" project, 2009-2011.